TOKYO -- Teleworking and "workations" are in decline in Japan as more people are choosing to go back to the office, a private think tank has found. The Mainichi Shimbun asked its experts if telework is on the way out.

It began with air pollution

Telework has a history of about 50 years. The term "telecommuting" began to be used in the 1970s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It is also said that U.S. physicist Jack Nilles coined the term. In an interview with his alma mater, Nilles explained that he advocated telecommuting in the early 1970s, when he began to work for a university in Los Angeles, but smog caused by traffic was a significant issue. He proposed working from home to improve the environment and workers' productivity.

In September 1979, The Washington Post ran a headline about how working from home could save gas, solidifying the term's place in public discourse during a global energy crisis.

In 2010, then U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Telework Enhancement Act, and telework became common among people such as federal employees.

Telework gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, but major U.S. tech companies are now leading efforts to bring employees back to the office.

Japan's telework trends

So, where does Japan stand?

During the pandemic, when "stay home" was the mantra, many workers eschewed their usual commutes and embraced remote work. It seemed telework was here to stay.

However, a November 2024 online survey by NTTCom Online Marketing Solutions Corp.'s NTTCom Research and NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting Inc. revealed a decline in telework. Among 1,080 regular employees in their 20s to 50s, 38.5% said their companies had telecommuting systems, a 7.5 percentage point drop from the previous year and the second consecutive year of decline.

Meanwhile, 6.9% said their companies had abolished telework systems, up 1.5 points. This trend was more common among smaller companies with fewer employees.

Even at companies with telework systems, fewer people are using them. Some 30.5% of workers at such companies said they didn't telecommute, up 1.5 points. The ratio of employees teleworking at least once a week also dropped for the second year in a row.

On the other hand, the percentage of workers teleworking at least four times a week rose by 2.2 points to 20.4%. This highlights a growing divide between those who rarely telework and those who do so frequently.

Taro Sakamoto, an associate partner at NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting, explained, "The pandemic forced many companies to reform their work styles, including telework. What we're seeing now is more of a swing back than a decline. The situation is more stable than it seems."

While companies are reassessing the value of in-person work, remote meetings have become common. More employees are adopting "hybrid" work styles, blending office and remote work.

"Companies will continue seeking the right balance of work styles for each employee and industry to enhance performance," Sakamoto said.

(Japanese original by Atsuko Ota, Digital News Group)